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Lack of introspectiveness in children makes the “working through” process in their psychotherapy difficult to follow. Using three sessions from the therapy of a latency aged boy as a paradigm, the highlights of “working through” could be demonstrated. Following an interpretation that the boy acted out for counterphobic reasons, subtle inferences from the boy's subsequent behaviour made it possible to deduce that the interpretation had made a significant impact. One inference was that the boy symbolically emulated the act of the interpretation itself. The struggle in assimilating the contents of the interpretation followed. The “working through” seemed regulated by a “safety principle” (Sandler, 1960). Insight was evident in acknowldgment of a real inferiority.
The following paper is offered as a contribution to the understanding of the therapeutic process in interpretative psychotherapy with children. A microscopic examination of the clinical data of three sessions of therapy will be undertaken for this purpose.
The type of therapy that was employed belongs probably to the type of analytically oriented play therapy of school-aged children, which has been the main form of therapeutic intervention at American child guidance clinics for over twenty-five years (Witmer, 1947).
There has been a paucity of literature on children's cases pertaining to the middle range effects of individual interpretations; in other words, to the detailed study of segments of “working through” longer than a portion of one interview, but shorter than many interviews. This range is ideal for studying the latent and disguised effects of given interpretations. The present paper is a study in this relatively neglected area.
The delayed and hidden influence of an interpretation is a major problem in the psychotherapy of children, much more so than is the case in therapy with adults. It undermines the confidence of the therapist in his understanding of the child, and consequently in his fai